Friend lost aquarium! How can I help out?

[Rhetoric]

Over the weekend, a friend's powerstrip caught on fire and destroyed everything plugged into it including lights, heater, skimmer, pump, etc. She can't afford to replace everything right now and is looking for a home for her fish and shrimp. I really want to help her but am not sure how much more my tank can handle and whether or not her fish would get along with mine. Can you all give me recommendations? Which fish/shrimp can I take? How many can I take? What are the chances that hers and mine will live together in peace?

What I have:
75g tank w/38g sump
2 Ocellaris Clowns
1 Diamond Watchmen Goby
1 Bicolor Blenny
1 Sixline Wrasse
3 Green Chromis
1 Cleaner shrimp
Misc crabs and snails

What she needs a home for:
1 Clownfish (Ocellaris or Percula; she's not sure which)
1 Blue Hippo Tang
1 Other fish; she says it looks like a Yellow tang but the back half of it is blue (working on an ID for this one)
2 Cleaner Shrimp

If I can catch the Chromis, I can remove them and take them back to the pet store to make more room for hers. I'd really like to help her out, what do you guys think?

Thanks for any advice!!

 

[Anonymous]

it destroyed all that stuff? or just the power cables melted?

If just power cables, a trip to home depot would fix it all up

however I can see not wanting to keep a tank after that mess

 

[Rhetoric]

Based on her description of it, it sounds like all the cables are melted in half. It happened in the middle of the night on Saturday and fortunately someone found it before it got worse. It is a fixable problem but I don't think she can spare the money right now.

I just found out that the other fish is actually a Bicolor Angelfish. I don't know anything about angels, so any recomendations or thoughts on taking in any or all of the fish/shrimp?

Thanks again for the help!

 

[ChrisRD]

If you have a good skimmer you should be able to handle the bioload, but a few things to consider...

The angel may/may not be OK with some of your corals. Most centropyge angels are hit/miss in a reef tank.

The tang should be in a larger system in the long term, but would be OK temporarily IMO (assuming it's not already very large).

Adding a third clown of the same/similar species into a system where there are already two established clowns may not go well. If you have room in you sump, maybe you could hold him there.

HTH

 

[shootist]

If the power cords are melted it wouldnt take very much money at all to fix them,probably less than ten dollars for new plugs and some wire nuts. if nothing else go around the house and cut the plugs off of some old lamps or eletronics that are no longer in use. For the cost of less than one fish she could at least get her lights,skimmer and return pump working. Seems a small price to pay compared to what she stands to lose.